Currently, touch-based input methods, such as touchscreen keyboards typically used on touchscreen devices, are widely utilized. These virtual keyboards are usually oriented in accordance with a “QWERTY” keyboard layout (or its variations) consisting of dozens of small virtual keys spread usually uniformly across a particular displayed keyboard.
These virtual keyboard implementations however often provide only limited typing comfort. For example, when holding a device displaying such a keyboard, some keys typically reside out of reach of a user's fingers, and therefore a user is forced to frequently adjust handling orientations of the device in order to utilize the keyboard, which results in reduced typing speeds. Moreover, a user may unintentionally drop the device displaying the virtual keyboard while adjusting handling orientation of the device, which may result in significant damage and/or loss of functionality of the device.
Moreover, because virtual keys of conventional virtual keyboards are often small in size (such as to fit each of the 26 letters of the English alphabet on different keys) relative to the average human thumb (which is often used to select virtual keys), typing and display selection accuracy is often compromised on such keyboards.
Additionally, because text displayed on a conventional display is often condensed closely together, it is often difficult for users to locate and change the location of a cursor on devices. This is because users may find it difficult to select, on smaller displays, the exact location to which a cursor is to be moved to. This is time consuming, and can cause interference with a user's cognitive processes.
Furthermore, while using conventional virtual keyboards on a conventional device, selection of text and/or cursor location adjustment often requires a user to adjust their handling orientation of the device, e.g., for example to reach locations on a device display that reside out of reach of a user's fingers. This can also be time consuming, and moreover may result in damage to the device where such adjusted handling results in the user unintentionally dropping the device.
Even further, conventional methods of selecting text do not allow users to modify a starting location of a selected area of text, once the text selection has been made, e.g., using a computer mouse. Instead, in order to redefine a text selection, users are forced to re-define the entire sections, which is time consuming.